Sometimes Middles Are Sewer Pipes...Sometimes Not

Middles sometimes are sewer pipes. They receive well
intentioned - but ill informed - instructions from above, and then mindlessly
pass them on, with embarrassing and sometimes disastrous consequences for all.
The suction of the sewer pipe is especially strong if the message from above
comes from a particularly powerful Top, say for instance, the President of the
United States.

The year is 1943. World War II is raging. Kennan is a Foreign
Service officer stationed in Portugal a, country struggling to maintain a
delicate neutrality. Kennan receives an instruction “by direction of the
President.” Top of the tops! The culture in the Foreign Service does not
encourage questioning instructions, especially those coming “by direction of
the President.” But Kennan does the unthinkable; he refuses to carry out the
order. Using his closeness to the situation and his independent judgment, he knows that the message, if sent, is likely
to infuriate the Portuguese Prime Minister, jeopardize his already fragile
position, and threaten US access to much needed air bases on the Portuguese
Azores. Kennan asks for permission to meet with the President to explain his
action. The message somehow makes its way to the President who asks to speak
with Kennan. The outcome: the President gives Kennan freedom regarding how to
conduct these sensitive negotiations with Prime Minister Salazar. From being a
potentially mindless Middle, Kennan becomes a Top with critical
responsibilities.

Gaddis points out how “During the Azores base negotiations,
Kennan violated at least four rules any
one of which could have got him sacked from the Foreign Service.” Yet the
outcomes were positive and, in the end, he received personal congratulations
from the US Secretary of State for his sensitive and competent handling of the
situation. Not surprisingly, Kennan’s peers had a less sanguine reaction -
“disapproval bordering on sheer horror.” He was judged by some as being “very
foolish and lucky to get away with it.”

There are lessons from this event. Middles regularly face
potential sewer pipe situations. The instructions come and you pass them on.
That’s what Middles do. Unfortunately, that’s what Middles may do blindly and
reflexively without examining the instructions and considering the consequences
they are likely to have. This is what it means to be a Mindless Middle. The
challenge for Middles is at all times to maintain their independence of thought
and action, and then to have the courage to act on that judgment.

That’s what George F. Kennan did, and that’s a possibility
for all of us when we’re in the middle.

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Mindless Tops and Courageous Middles
Here's a recent example of a courageous Middle taking a Stand. George Galloway (the leader of the Respect Party in UK and the Top in this scenario) said in a podcast earlier this month that the allegations against Julian Assange (of WikiLeaks fame) by the two Swedish women did not constitute rape "as most people understood it" but simply "bad sexual etiquette. His deputy leader, Salma Yaqoob (http://www.salmayaqoob.com/) resigned in protest saying his comments had let down the women of Bradford. Galloway had been elected with the support of many Asian women from traditional backgrounds. Yaqoob said Galloways's comments "open the door to women being treated in a certain way; you are just dismissed, your views are not taken seriously and a certain reactionary attitude is encouraged rather than challenged". The cost of her Middle Stand: death threats.